Central America bears brunt of HIV/AIDS

A United Nations report revealed that Central America suffers the brunt of HIV/AIDS in Latin America.

The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) reported that 1.7 million people have HIV, including 208,6000 also with AIDS, in Central America. The report included Belize and Panama in the regional report.

UNAIDS is part of the fifth Central American People With HIV/AIDS Encounter, a conference in Managua, Nicaragua, to assist people with HIV/AIDS.

Read more here. Also, check out this organization that heps AIDS victims specifically in Latin America.

Source: ChinaView

Next Chilean vacation: Fort Worth?

Representatives from Texas tourism bureaus are in Argentina this week and will later travel to Chile in an effort to drum up interest among South Americans travelers to visit Dallas and Fort Worth.

The Texans are from the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport and the cities are working together to kick off a $6 million tourism campaign.

Airport officials gave a presentation to 100 travel agents Tuesday in Buenos Aires and next travel to Santiago, Chile.

If you're interested in traveling from South America to Texas, click here.

Source: Star-Telegram

Photo: dfwairport.com

Carstens' Crisis Control

Latin Business Chronicle has an interesting article about Agustin Carstens, "the man who is helping President Calderon steer Latin America's second-largest economy."

Carstens is Mexico's Finance Minister, a job that seems to blend crisis control and explaining complicated numbers.

If you're a business junkie, get your fix here.

Source: Latin Business Chronicle

Photo: LBC, Calderon and Carstens

Norway commits to research project

Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is funding research on Latin American history for the first time. The government allocated funding for more than 100 people to work on Latin America-related themes and also promised to increase funding in the next few years.

The plan is to spend seven to ten years researching, boosted by a corresponding increase in funding.

Read more about Norway's interest in Latin America here.

Source: Nettavis for Universitetet i Bergen

Photo: Kjersti Fløttum, vice-rector for international relations

Daily Headlines: November 7, 2007

* Sixteen people are feared dead after mudslides swept away areas of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

* Seventy percent of Mexicans living in California are U.S. citizens according to data released by the Census Bureau.

* Brazilian oil firm Petrobras may make significant inroads in Bolivia according to the company’s CEO.

* U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama flew to Puerto Rico on Monday and met with the commonwealth’s governor before heading to a fundraiser in San Juan.

* Follow-up: Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez teased U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney for erroneously calling Chavez the leader of Peru.

Sources- AHN, Monsters & Critics, UPI, KGBT, Associated Press, Reuters, The Latin Americanist

Image- New York Times

Quote of the Day: Trying to stay in Canada

“It is a constant reminder of my plight in Colombia as it repeats themes of my disappearance in Colombia: . . . being a victim of slander or evidence I am not allowed access to . . . having a life I am trying to establish wrecked; being powerless compared to state actors who act with complete impunity.”

--Former Colombian trade unionist Amparo Torres described to the Toronto Star her plight in trying to remain as a permanent resident in Canada for nearly a decade.

Despite being recognized as a “high-profile political refugee” who is currently married with two sons, Torres may be deported back to Colombia by Canadian immigration officials by the end of the year.

Source- TheStar.com

Image- BBC News

Hacker hits Chilean government website

Apparently turnabout is fair play.

In July, a Chilean hacker broke into the Peruvian president’s website and defaced it. Alan Garcia’s image was replaced with that of Chilean independence hero Bernardo O’Higgins and wrote the phrase “Viva Chile, mierda”! (Viva Chile, shit!”)

On Sunday a hacker infiltrated the official Chilean government’s website and displayed the Peruvian flag. In addition, a pro-Peru message similar to the one in the July incident was written. The site was down for 18 hours and was back to normal yesterday.

One Chilean newspaper mentioned the obvious:

The Santiago daily El Mercurio on Monday reported that officials believe the hacker was a Peruvian.

Sources (English)- The Latin Americanist, Associated Press

Sources (Spanish)- Gobierno de Chile

Image- CNN

U.S. immigration chief: Sorry for blackface costume

The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement apologized for the “inappropriate and offensive” costumes worn be several partygoers at a Halloween party she hosted. Julie Myers “deeply regretted” the incidents at the fundraising soiree at her residence which included:

“One employee, whom she declined to identify, was wearing a black-and-white striped prison outfit, dreadlocks and a skin "bronzer" intended "to make him look African-American.”

Myers was on a panel that judged the aforementioned costume as “most original” and also posed for photos with the “winner”. A spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza told the Associated Press that Myers’ mea culpa was “completely appropriate.”

Sources- TIME – Swampland, CNN, hardbeatnews.com, Associated Press

Image- PBS (Broadway actor Bert Williams in blackface)

Courts rule on Dow pesticide and De Menezes cases

Courts in the U.S. and Britain arrived at their respective verdicts in two cases we’ve covered this year.

First, a Los Angeles court ruled that Dow Chemicals and Dole Fruit were both liable in a claim brought up by former Nicaraguan plantation workers. The plaintiffs said that they became sterile after having worked with a now-banned pesticide in the 1970s. In addition to the guilty verdict, the jury awarded six who were “substantially harmed” $3.3 million.

Meanwhile, a London court found the city’s Metropolitan Police guilty of breaking health and safety laws in the 2005 murder of Jean Charles de Menezes. De Menezes was a Brazilian electrician slain by officers who mistook him for a suspected terrorist. The verdict was met by an increased public outcry for Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair to resign and indignation from some of de Menezes’ family:

"I think true justice would be for them to go to prison, at least for some time so that they could think about what they did," Maria Beatriz Figueiredo told The Associated Press on Friday at her home in the remote village of Gonzaga in southeastern Brazil…

"They can't just go out into the middle of the street shooting someone in the middle of all those people," she said. "It cannot be right. And the real terrorist is still alive, it is revolting."

Image- Wired – Listening Post

Sources- BBC News, AFP, The Latin Americanist, CNN, Guardian UK, Canadian Press

Daily Headlines: November 6, 2007

* Alan Greenspan eat your heart out - Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen supposedly wants to be paid in Euros, not U.S. dollars.

* At a news conference yesterday, a former Venezuelan defense minister called Hugo Chavez’ proposed constitutional changes a “nondemocratic imposition” akin to a coup.

* Over 100 U.N. Sri Lankan peacekeepers patrolling Haiti have been ordered to return home after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced.

* Peruvian prosecutors want a 30-year prison sentence for ex-President Alberto Fujimori.

* At least 30 prisoners were killed in an Argentine jail after a fire swept through a cellblock.

Sources- BBC News, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, MSNBC, International Herald Tribune

Image- Sydney Morning Herald

Posts return on Tuesday

Apologies to all of you for the lack of posts today.

Please be assured that regularly scheduled posting will resume on Tuesday.

In the meantime, here is the trailer to the upcoming film adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez' book "Love in the Time of Cholera".

The movie stars Javier Bardem, Benjamin Bratt, and Catalina Sandino Moreno. It will be released in Colombia and limited in the U.S. on the 16 of this month.

(Video link):

(Hat tip: VivirLatino).

Video of the Day: Cheney's geographical gaffe

See Dick speak.

See Dick talk about Hugo Chavez.

See Dick erroneously calling Hugo Chavez the leader of Peru.

(Video link):


Sources- YouTube, BBC News

Daily Headlines: November 5, 2007

* Center-leftist Alvaro Colom appears to be the next president of Guatemala with 97% of the ballots officially counted.

* Wild weather continues to devastate Mexico, Colombia, Central America and the Caribbean.

* Thousands of pro-government supporters marched through the streets of Caracas yesterday.

* Congrats to Argentine David Nalbandian who beat Spaniard Rafael Nadal to win the Paris Masters Series tennis tournament.

Sources- BBC News, Xinhua, CNN, Guardian UK

Image- CNN

Video of the Day: “Me voy! Me voy! Me voy!”

The weekend is here! And to usher it in on a strong not we’re linking to a performance of “Isla de Encanta” by the Pixies. The song is in Spanish and an escapist ode to lead singer Frank Black’s brief six-month stay in Puerto Rico before forming the seminal alt-rock band.

Have a great weekend and don’t forget to vote for the finalists in our “fifty greatest songs of the 1990s in the Americas” survey!

(Video link):

Sources- The Latin Americanist, pixiesmusic.com, Wikipedia, YouTube

Daily Headlines: November 2, 2007 (PM Edition)

With the weekend around the corner here are a few more news stories that have caught out attention:

* The Mexican navy seized over 23 tons of cocaine in a ship traveling from Colombia.

* Hundreds of Latinos in Oklahoma rallied against a recently passed state law with measures like stopping government subsidies like health care for illegal immigrants.

* Emerging-market bonds worldwide including in Latin America tumbled today.

* Thousands of anti-Chavez protestors clashed with police yesterday in Caracas while the legislators proposed a two-part vote for 69 constitutional changes.

* Is Haiti about to enter into a deep political crisis?

* Follow-up: At the behest of the Spanish government, Uruguayan officials have delayed the opening of a controversial Finnish-owned paper mill.

Sources (English)- The Latin Americanist, BBC News, Bloomberg, Associated Press, MiamiHerald.com, Pryor Daily Times

Sources (Spanish)- El Diario/La Prensa

Image- BBC News

Colombia: President may opt for third term

Colombian president Alvaro Uribe said that he would consider running for a third straight term in case of a “catastrophe.” Though he refused to detail what sort of circumstances would lead him to run again, one presidential advisor said that the “catastrophe” would be if Uribe’s supporters cannot find a suitable successor to him.

Uribe’s remarks came days after opposition candidates scored big wins in local elections. A few of them spoke out against the possibility of Uribe running in 2010:

"It's not a good idea for someone to perpetuate themselves eternally in power," said Jose Gregorio Hernandez, a former member of Colombia's Constitutional Court.

It is unconstitutional for presidents to run for a third term though that has not stopped several legislators from trying to amend it.

Sources (English)- Reuters, International Herald Tribune, Plan Colombia and Beyond, The Latin Americanist

Sources (Spanish)- El Tiempo, RCN

Image- BBC Mundo